When Apple first launched the Apple Watch, the company also revealed the potential for the device to be a luxury device and offered it in a gold finish where it was priced at $10,000. However, presumably they later discovered that this wasn’t necessarily an option that many people went for, and later changed it to a still-expensive, but slightly more affordable ceramic finish.
However, it turns out that Apple had apparently planned to launch the Apple Watch in a ceramic finish back in 2014. This is according to a tweet by @DongleBookPro who shared images of a prototype first-gen Apple Watch in ceramic. The tweet claims that this was manufactured in 2014 meaning that there was a chance Apple could have chosen this as their first-gen Apple Watch.
Proto-2F Ceramic Original Apple Watch (S0)
Interestingly this was manufactured in 2014, indicating Apple could have launched the ceramic model with the original watch opposed to the Series 2 pic.twitter.com/Bq4ZaOZ7fO
— Dongle (@DongleBookPro) July 3, 2021
We’re not sure why Apple ultimately decided to go with gold and save the ceramic finish for later models, but at the same time we can’t say we’re too surprised to learn about this. This is because during a prototyping phase, Apple probably went through various designs and choice of materials, so for them to have considered ceramic isn’t a stretch of the imagination.
In any case, Apple has since toned down its Apple Watch finish options considerably, where titanium is the most expensive option, although at $900, it is a much easier pill to swallow compared to the $10,000 gold version that the company first offered to customers as an option.
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